Transport system particularly upright cableway, aerial cableway or overhead railway

ABSTRACT

A transport system, especially an upright cableway, aerial cableway or overhead railway wherein each cabin is provided with a door which, when closed, is locked and can be opened from the outside. Each door is equipped with a spring-loaded control lever provided at one end with a control pin. At each station there is provided at least one stationary control rail for displacing the control pin in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the cabin and from a first into a second terminal position. In the first terminal position the door is closed and in the second terminal position the door is opened.

United States Patent 1 1 1111 3,7 12%4 Frech 1 July 3, 1973 1 TRANSPORTSYSTEM PARTICULARLY 3,556,016 1/1971 Pomagalski et a1 105/150 UPRIGHTCABLEWAY, AERIAL 3,556,014 1/1971 Rudkin, Jr. 105/329 SC CABLEWAY OROVERHEAD RAILWAY Anton Frech, Schongrund 21, 4600 Olten, SwitzerlandFiled: Dec. 15, 1971 App]. No.: 208,287

Inventor:

Foreign Application Priority Data Aug. 26, 1971 Switzerland 12566/71 US.Cl 104/173, 49/345, 104/89, 105/150, 105/349, 105/329 S Int. Cl B6lb11/00, B6lb 7/00, B6lb 3/00 Field of Search 104/89, 173; 105/148, 150,329, 343, 348, 349, 377; 42/339, 345, 379, 386

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Carlevaro 105/329 S PrimaryExaminer-Drayton E, Hoffman Attorney-Werner W. Kleeman [57] ABSTRACT Atransport system, especially an upright cableway, aerial cableway oroverhead railway wherein each cabin is provided with a door which, whenclosed, is locked and can be opened from the outside. Each door isequipped with a spring-loaded control lever provided at one end with acontrol pin. At each station there is provided at least one stationarycontrol rail for displacing the control pin in a direction perpendicularto the direction of travel of the cabin and from a first into a secondterminal position. In the first terminal position the door is closed andin the second terminal position the door is opened.

3 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PAIENIEDJUL 3 i975 SHEET 3 OF 4 Fig.7

TRANSPORT SYSTEM PARTICULARLY UPRIGHT CABLEWAY, AERIAL CABLEWAY OROVERHEAD RAILWAY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present inventionbroadly relates to transport systems and, more particularly, to a newand improved construction of upright or standing cableway, aerialcableway or overhead railway.

It is standard practice for upright cableways and aerial cableways, alsoan elevated or overhead railway, for reasons of safety, to design thecabins not accompanied by an operator during their transport functionssuch that their doors are locked when closed nnd can only be opened fromthe outside. With these type cabins it has also already been proposed toarrange a control rail at the station which unlocks the door lockingmechanism via mechanical transmission means in order that the unlockeddoor can be opened by the passengers in the cabin prior to departure.Mechanisms which automatically open the door or even mechanisms whichclose the doors, have not heretofore been used for the cabins of thepreviously mentioned transport systems because the constructionalexpenditure required for such purposes is much too great in relation tothe price of the small cabins or gondolas. This is predicated upon thefact that, among other reasons, such gondolas or cabins do not have any"electrical hardware so that mechanical transmission systems arerequired which are only then permitted to be incorporated into thetransport system if it can be absolutely demonstrated without doubt thatsuch are truly reliable in operation. Up to now this high degree ofsecurity in operation has not been capable of realization for mechanicaldevices having limited constructional expenditure, so that transportsystems are not equipped with such devices, instead the work in openingand closing the cabin doors is carried out by the operating personnel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Hence, from what has been stated above itshould be recognized that the prior art is still in need of a transportsystem of the mentioned types designed in a manner to overcome thepreviously explained drawbacks and limitationsflt is a primaryobjective, therefore, of this invention to provide such type transportsystems constructed and designed to effectively and reliably overcomethe limitations and shortcomings of the prior art constructions.

Another and more specific object of the present invention relates to anovel construction of transport system having a foolproof and highlyreliably operating cabin door actuating mechanism by means of which itis possible to dispense with the use of expensive operating personnelwhich normally heretofore were only briefly and intermittently used.

Another and more specific object of the present invention relates to atransport system equipped with a purely mechanical mechanism forautomatically unlocking, opening, again closing, and locking the doorsof each cabin at the cabin stations.

Still a further significant object of the present invention relates to anew and improved construction of transport system equipped withmechanism for reliably and automatically operating the doors as thecabin is at a station, thereby dispensing with the need to employexpensive operating personnel simply for this purpose, hence improvingthe economies of the transport system, while still affording therequisite safety and safeguards against unintentional or unauthorizedmanipulations of the cabin doors.

Now, in order to implement these and still further objects of theinvention, which will become more readily apparent as the descriptionproceeds, the invention contemplates that each door is operativelyconnected with at least one spring-loaded control lever provided at oneend with a control pin. At each station there is provided at least onestationary control rail serving for displacing the control pin in adirection perpendicular to the direction of travel of the cabin and froma first terminal position into the second terminal position, whereby thedoor in the first terminal position is closed and in the second terminalposition however is opened.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be betterunderstood and objects other than those set forth above, will becomeapparent when consideration is given to the following detaileddescription thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexeddrawings wherein:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are respective simplified illustrations in plan of aportion of an aerial cableway cabin with the equipment for opening andclosing a single-wing cabin door, the floor of the cabin being omittedfor purposes of clarity in illustration, and with FIG. 1 showingthe doorin closed position and FIG. 2 in open position;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the arrangement depicted in FIG. 2,taken substantially along the line III-III thereof;

FIGS. 4 9 likewise schematically illustrate details of asecondembodiment of cableway transport system, the cabin possessing adouble-wing door, and wherein:

FIGS. 4 7 enlarged respective plan views illustrating the dooropeningand closing mechanism, FIGS. 4 and 5 showing the mechanism asused for opening the cabin door, whereas FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate themechanism as used for closing the cabin door;

FIG. 8 is an enaarged sectional view showing details of the arrangementdepicted in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IX-IX of FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Describing now thedrawings, considering initially the first exemplary embodiment of theinvention as depicted in FIGS. 1 3 of the drawing, it should beunderstood the aerial cableway cabin wall is designated by referencecharacter 1 and the single-wing door by reference character 2. The cabindoor 2 is rigidly connected with a guidearm 3 arranged beneath the floorof the cabin. The end 3a of the guide arm 3 is hingedly connected withplay to an arm 40 of a control lever 4, the other arm 4b of which isprovided at its end with a control pin 5 carrying a control roller orroll 5a. The play between the guide arm 3 and the control lever 4 may beprovided for instance in that the arm 4a is Continuing, it will beobserved that a spring 7 is attached at location 4d to the control lever4, the other end of this spring 7 being attached to the cabin floor orat a carrier or support specifically arranged beneath the cabin floor.As should be readily apparent from the drawing the arrangement isundertaken in such a manner that the spring 7, when the door 2 isapproximately halfway open, is located above the point of rotation 4e ofthe control lever 4.

Moreover, reference numeral 6 designates a springloaded lockingmechanism which, upon closing the cabin door 2, snaps-in and retains thedoor closed, and further which, as is well known in the art, althoughnot particularly shown in the drawing, can be opened from the outsideagainst the force of the spring, by means of a door grip or key andadditionally by means of some suitable type of stationary control railvia a rod or Bowden cable.

Furthermore, as will be readily recognized by referring to FIGS. 1 3there is attached to the bottom of the cabin floor a guide pin 8equipped with a roller or roll 8a. At the region of a cabin station thisguide pin 8 is guided at the lower portion of a floor rail 9 so as toprevent rocking of the cabin, and therefore to ensure, by means of thecontrol rail 90 attached to the ground, positive guiding of the controlroller a connected with the control pin 5. Hence, when the cabindepicted in the position in FIG. 1 moves further towards the left, then,the control pin 5 will be displaced perpendicular to the direction oftravel of the cabin by the control rail 9a; in other words in the caseunder consideration this control pin 5 will be displaced upwards in theillustration of FIG. 1. Consequently, the control lever 4, loaded by'the spring member 7, will be rocked in counterclockwise direction sothat the door 2 will be opened and, as best seen by referring to FIG. 2,will be fixedly retained in its open position by the spring member 7.

Now for the purpose of closing the door it is possible to use astationary stop or impact member 10 which engages with the top or lowerregion of the cabin door. Hence, if the cabin moves further to the leftin the showing of FIG. 2, then the door 2 will impact against thestationary stop 10 and the door will be pushed closed and completelyclosed by the action of the spring member 7 and held in the closedposition by the snap-type lock mechanism 6. However, it would be alsopossible to use a further rail corresponding to the rail 9a which,through the agency of the control pin 5 and the lever 4, ensures forclosing of the door.

Naturally it is not necessary to arrange the previously describedmechanism beneath the cabin floor; such can be also arranged in anintermediate floor or false bottom of the cabin, at the roofof thecabin, or in an area between the cabin roof and the inner roof of suchcabin.

The second embodiment of the invention to be described hereinafter inconjunction with FIGS. 4 9 also concerns an aerial cableway. However, inthis instance each cabin is equipped with a double-wing door arrangement11, 12. The individual door wings have been designated by referencenumerals 11 and 12, and the wall of the cabin by reference character 13.Here also the cabin floor has again been conveniently omitted for thepurpose of improving clarity in illustration, the line 35 representingthe edge of a removable floor cover which when removed renders readilyaccesible from above the mechanism to be described hereinafter.

Now at a support or carrier 15 welded to a traverse 14 there is arrangeda bearing for a pivot pin 16a of a control lever 16. This control lever16 is equipped with two arms, a shorter arm 16b and a longer arm 16c. Atthe end of the shorter lever arm 16b there is disposed a control pin 17provided with a control roller or roll 17a. On the other hand, the outerend of the other arm is connected via two springs 18 with a pin 19 whichinterconnects both ends of the guides or control members 20 and 21, theother ends of which are each hingedly connected with one of the doorwings 11 and 12, as shown. By means of a third guide or control member22 the pin 19 is hingedly connected with the pin 16a, so that this pin19 can rock or pivot about the stationary pin 16a. These details can bebest recognized by referring to the showing of FIG. 8, wherein it shouldbe also apparent that at the guide or control member 22 there isarranged a claw rod 23 having two claw members 23 a and 23b which,together with the lengthwise displaceable bolts or locks 24a and 24b ofthe lock component 24, form an arresting mechanism and retain the door11, 12 in closed position. The bolts or locks 24a and 24b can beretracted against the force of springs not visible in the drawing, bymeans of the balance or beam 25 and the tension or draw rod 26 hingedlyconnected with the guide or control rod 27 and owing to the action ofthe cam 16d rigidly connected with the control lever 16, so that theclaw rod 23 and therefore the three guides or control members 20, 21 and22 are released. The guide member 28 serves to estblish the requisiteoperable connection between the three guides or control members 20, 21and 22 and the control lever 16. As should be apparent from FIG. 8, thisguide member 28 is hingedly connected with play to the control lever 16and without play to the guide member 20.

Now as best seen by referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 if the cabin arrives at astation, then the guide pin 29, secured somewhat resiliently to thecabin floor and which carries at its one end a guide roller 2911, willbe guided into the guide rail 30 in order to prevent any excessiverocking of the cabin. The control pin 17 with its control roller 17a isthen displaced by the control rail 31 perpendicular to the direction ofcabin travel, i.e., upwardly in the showing of the drawings, so that thecontrol lever 16 rotatably mounted by means of the pivot pin 16a isrotated against the force of the springs 18. During this rotary orpivotable movement the cam 16d initially presses against the guide rod27 and rocks such, whereby the arresting mechanism 23, 24 is releasedthrough the action of the tension rod 26. The bolt 16e at the lever arm16c is displaced within the slot of the guide member 28 until it impactsagainst the end of the slot and then during further rocking movementdisplaces the guide 28 in such a manner that by means of both of theguides 20 and 21 the opening movement of the door wings 11 and 12 isinitiated. Now as soon as the door wings have opened somewhat more thanone half of their full extent, i.e., then when the springs 18 have movedpast the axis of rotation of the control lever 16, then there occurs acomplete opening of the doors by the force of the springs 18. Hence, themechanism assumes the position illustrated in FIG. 5 wherein the doorwings 11 and 12 are held open by the spring force, however these doorwings can also be manually closed against the force of such springs. Toagain open the doors it is only necessary to pull upon the free end 32aof the tension cable 32 serving as an emergency opening mechanism andwhich tension cable is guided through the guide 16f at the lever 16, theother end of this tension cable 32 being provided with a randomthickened portion 32b and secured by a helical spring 36 to the cabinchassis. Consequently, the previously described door opening operationcan be likewise carried out.

Upon leaving the station, and as best seen by referring to FIGS. 6 and7, the aerial cableway cabin travels past a second control rail 33whereby the mechanism is operated in the sense of closing the doors l1and 12. The control rail 33 displaces the control pin 17 with thecontrol roller 17a again in a direction perpendicular to the directionof cabin travel, however this time in the direction towards the cabindoor. Consequently, the control lever 16 is rocked in clockwisedirection against the force of the springs 18, so that the pin l6eguided at the slot of the guide member 28, as soon as it bears againstthe end of this slot, entrains this guide member so that the closingoperation of both door wings 11 and 12 is initiated. This closingoperation is terminated by the springs 18 as soon as such have movedpast their dead-center position. At the end of the closing operation thearresting mechanism 23, 24 also snaps-in. Such, as is also known for thelocks of automobile doors, is constructed as a double-stage lockingdevice in order that the arresting mechanism can also then fixedly holdthe door if, for instance, owing to ice or snow or interference by anobject, such as a ski pole, it is not yet completely closed.

As should be apparent from the preceding described embodiments, theinventive apparatus possesses an extremely simple disturbance-freeconstruction, especially suitable for use during rough weatherconditions and whichreliably opens the doors at given stations, holdsthe doors open, again shuts the doors and holds such closed, and whereinthe door wings in order to prevent accidents when they are in their openposition are elastically retained in such open position. Of course, theequipment can be modified by carrying out certain constructional changeswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the inventive concepts.Thus, for instance, it is-not necessary that the described mechanism bearranged beneath the passenger space or cabin region, it could also bearranged above such. Furthermore, it would also be possible toaccommodate the control rail at the region of the cabin suspensioninstead of at the station floor, provided that the necessarytransmission elements are present, such as for instance rods or Bowdenorflexible cables.

While there is shown and described present preferred embodiments of theinvention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is notlimited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practicedwithin the scope of the following claims. Accordingly,

What is claimed is: i

1. A transport system, especially upright cableway, aerial cableway orelevated railway, comprising at least one cabin, each cabin having adoor which in its closed position is locked and can be opened from theoutside, a locking mechanism for each door, control rail means providedat each station, means cooperating with said control rail means foracting upon said locking mechanism to open the latter, said cooperatingmeans comprising at least one spring-loaded control lever provided forthe cabin door, said control lever being equipped at one end with acontrol pin, said control rail means comprising at least one stationarycontrol rail provided at each station for displacing the control pin ina direction perpendicular to the direction of travei of the cabin from afirst terminal position into a second terminal position, wherein thedoor in the first terminal position is closed and in the second terminalposition is opened, the door of the cabin is constructed as adouble-wing door, and wherein both wings of each such door are connectedvia a respective first and second guide member with a third guidemember, means defining a fixed point of rotation, said third guidemember being pivotably connected with said fixed point of rotation, andan arresting mechanism provided for at least one of the three guidemembers in order to retain said guide members in a position in which thedoor is closed.

2. The transport system as defined in claim 1, further including aconnection bolt for connecting together said three guide members, thespring loading said control lever connecting the opposite end of saidcontrol lever remote from said control pin with said connection bolt forsaid threeguide members, said spring loading said control lever, whenthe door is approximately halfway opened, being located over the pointof rotation of the control lever.

3. The transport system as defined in claim 2, wherein said controllever is connected with play via a fourth guide member with one of saidthree guide members in such a manner that during rocking of the controllever from a first terminal position into a second terminal positionsuch initially acts upon said arresting mechanism and releases suchbefore it pivots the guide members hinged with the door wings, andwherein when the door is opened at least one door wing can beelastically rocked through a limited angle without acting upon saidcontrol lever.

a m a :u a

1. A transport system, especially upright cableway, aerial cableway orelevated railway, comprising at least one cabin, each cabin having adoor which in its closed position is locked and can be opened from theoutside, a locking mechanism for each door, control rail means providedat each station, means cooperating with said control rail means foracting upon said locking mechanism to open the latter, said cooperatingmeans comprising at least one spring-loaded control lever provided forthe cabin door, said control lever being equipped at one end with acontrol pin, said control rail means comprising at least one stationarycontrol rail provided at each station for displacing the control pin ina direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the cabin from afirst terminal position into a second terminal position, wherein thedoor in the first terminal position is closed and in the second terminalposition is opened, the door of the cabin is constructed as adouble-wing door, and wherein both wings of each such door are connectedvia a respective first and second guide member with a third guidemember, means defining a fixed point of rotation, said third guidemember being pivotably connected with said fixed point of rotation, andan arresting mechanism provided for at least one of the three guidemembers in order to retain said guide members in a position in which thedoor is closed.
 2. The transport system as defined in claim 1, furtherincluding a connection bolt for connecting together said three guidemembers, the spring loading said control lever connecting the oppositeend of said control lever remote from said control pin with saidconnection bolt for said three guide members, said spring loading saidcontrol lever, when the door is approximately halfway opened, beinglocated over the point of rotation of the control lever.
 3. Thetransport system as defined in claim 2, wherein said control lever isconnected with play via a Fourth guide member with one of said threeguide members in such a manner that during rocking of the control leverfrom a first terminal position into a second terminal position suchinitially acts upon said arresting mechanism and releases such before itpivots the guide members hinged with the door wings, and wherein whenthe door is opened at least one door wing can be elastically rockedthrough a limited angle without acting upon said control lever.